242 Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofi t Organizations
important to teams, but general competencies are important as well.
Competencies such as effective communication, demonstrating initiative,
volunteering to assist team members, responding to requests for information
in a timely manner, and other behaviors and competencies necessary for
team success are also critical.
For team - based performance systems to work, team objectives need to
be clear. There need to be clear and specifi c performance objectives. Each
team member needs to understand her or his responsibility in relationship
to the other team members ’ responsibilities so confusion is eliminated. It is
important to document what has been agreed on and follow up with progress
meetings. If necessary, training and development should be provided so
that individuals are contributing to the team ’ s objectives.Gainsharing
Gainsharing is a group incentive plan that distributes gains from improved
performance to employees in a department or organization, based on an
established sharing formula. Participative management and teamwork are
used to develop performance techniques and standards that control costs
or units of output. All members of the team, department, or agency benefi t
from the increased cost savings. Lawler (2000) refers to gainsharing as a
management style, a technology for organizational development, and an
incentive system. Gainsharing and increases in compensation are discussed
in greater detail in Chapter Nine.Goalsharing
Goalsharing plans, like gainsharing plans, pay bonuses when performance
is above a standard. The difference is that goalsharing plans seek to lever-
age an organization ’ s operational strategy by measuring performance on
key strategic objectives. Goalsharing plans can reward things that do not
have an immediate or direct-dollar payoff for an organization such as
quality or customer satisfaction. A specifi c bonus amount is tied to achieving
performance on the goals that were set. At the end of the year, a different
set of measures and standards may be established as part of a new plan,
or the old plan may continue. Goalsharing plans are typically used when
the external environment is rapidly changing and the organization wants
to target a particular kind of performance improvement for a limited time
period (Lawler, 2000).